A Swedish stamp set

I found this precious little stamp set yesterday - I'm in love! I've actually been on the lookout for a "Tack" stamp for a while so I was so surprised to find this one here in Japan. I thought for sure I'd have to order one online or at least look somewhere in the states, but here it is!

And not only does it have a "Tack" (which means thank you in Swedish) stamp, but it came with the cute little bird stamp on the right too!

So I tested them out...

...and liked what I saw!

I'm going to have a lot of thank you notes to write after the wedding and I think this stamp will prove to be very useful.

Sumo!

Last weekend Ryan and I got to watch a sumo tournament! It was pretty cool!

We also got to eat at a chanko dining restaurant, which is a traditional sumo wrestlers' dish. They fill a clay pot with various veggies and meat, add either miso or soy sauce broth and then bring it to your table over a flame. You wait for a while for it to cook, then turn your heat down and chow down!

All in all, we had a super fun day at the tournament!

Sorry for my lack of crafting posts recently, I've been busy traveling and seeing things so I haven't had much time to create. I do have a few things a-brewin' though, stay tuned!

A knit bench

First things first, I apologize for the low-quality photos. Wouldn't you know it that as soon as we got on the train headed for Tokyo I realized I forgot my camera. Oops. Luckily nowadays we always have the backup cellphone camera.

I took these about a month ago but forgot to upload my cellphone pictures until now. Ryan and I had taken a little trip to Ebisu (near Tokyo) to visit the Yebisu Brewery Museum. Since we went before Christmas there were still lots of decorations up and a big Christmas tree in the square. Surrounding the Christmas tree were about 5 of these "knit" benches. I thought they were pretty awesome so I took some photos.

Some sections were knitted and other parts crocheted. Then they were tied onto the benches, or in some cases knit around them.

I don't know why they were like this, but it appeared to be some sort of group project. There was a sign that I assume explained the whole deal but, unfortunately, I can't read Japanese. Your guess is as good as mine.